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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-31 Daily Xml
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SA Water Outage

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on the response to a recent SA Water outage in the southern suburbs along with any alternative views on the matter?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:35): People will be well aware that on 24 October, SA Water experienced a serious outage of water supply to a number of suburbs in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. They were at the time undertaking some routine maintenance work. They had had a report that there had been a leak of supply and distribution on Lonsdale Road.

Although they thought that the works would be relatively minor, in fact, as they uncovered the extent of the infrastructure damage, they had to escalate to emergency works, then there was a movement of underground soil and water, which meant that the water had to be cut off altogether. Some hours later, the tanks that had been holding water for those suburbs were shut off. This was a very significant outage. There were some 5,000 connections in Hallett Cove, Sheidow Park, Trott Park and some surrounding areas, and there were five schools that were shut as a result, which was extremely inconvenient, to say the least, for people living in that area, and highly disruptive to them.

For that, obviously both SA Water and the government apologise for the impact on them. During this experience, of course we kept the local member up to date, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, and ensured that alternative arrangements were, as much as possible, made available for people to go to the bathroom and so on. By the second day, we were able to open the schools, having been able to accommodate some of the infrastructure required, but that first day, those schools were closed.

What we have done as a result of that is I asked SA Water to consider whether they would waive a quarter of supply charge to the people in that area, acknowledging that although an interruption to supply can occur to people in pockets, to have 5,000 go out means that you cannot go round to the neighbours', you cannot go round to the local shops. You have the kids home from school because they cannot go to school. The disruption was of another order than that which is normally experienced, although all disruption is, of course, extremely inconvenient.

As may well be understood by most people, ESCOSA does in its regulatory determination acknowledge that there will be some service gesture payments, as they are called, made to customers on a case-by-case basis. In fact, I was asked about one of those recently in this house on a smaller outage that lasted for some time. I know that the Leader of the Opposition, when he was the minister, also talked about SA Water's compensation scheme being applied on a case-by-case basis. That is why it seemed to me passing strange, given that I assume it is a pretty tight ship over there, where the front bench talk to each other and have a shared view—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: That's a big assumption.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I'm a generous person. I'm always an optimist about human nature. It is passing strange that the shadow treasurer decided to question the wisdom and the sense of offering such a service payment—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —and was on ABC Adelaide, concerned, saying, 'This sort of compensation is only going to be ordered'—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —'when the minister decides she needs to provide political intervention'—as if political intervention is always a bad thing. But the decision nonetheless is made by the board, having had a recommendation—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta! The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: So it's good to know that the opposition is continuing to have its view that this waiving of fees in order to make a service gesture is unnecessary. Members may recall that SA Water waived bills for 12 months following the bushfires. It waived rates to residents in Mannum during the 2022-23 River Murray floods. Also, the Leader of the Opposition has himself called—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —for the state government to assist home owners, with the recent Felmeri Homes collapse. So it seems something that is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister's time has expired.

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